COLUMBIA, S.C. — In schools, students and staff may be quarantined if they're a close contact to someone that has COVID-19. They're sent home and may isolate for up to 14 days to stop the spread.
"I'm really worried about it," Richland Two teacher, Nicole Walker said.
With the teacher shortage affecting South Carolina schools, Walker worries quarantining will make it near impossible to keep educators in every classroom.
"We know with the Delta variant that vaccinated people are still getting break through cases and carrying the virus. So, my personal opinion is anyone who is exposed needs to be quarantining because we don’t need to be spreading it through the schools," said Walker.
According to DHEC, fully vaccinated people or people who have had COVID-19 in the previous 90 days do not need to quarantine if they become a close contact.
In their guidance to schools, DHEC says:
“Fully vaccinated people are recommended to get tested 3-5 days after exposure, even if they do not have symptoms, and it is important for them to wear a mask at school until 14 days after exposure or they receive a negative test result.”
Another concern for teachers is possibly having to use their own sick leave to quarantine.
“if you have to spend that 10 days quarantining then potentially if you got sick or your kids got sick for any other reason, then you'd have to go without pay for those days because the quarantine period is 10 days, so that would eat up all of your leave," explained Walker.
Districts can use federal COVID relief funds to cover sick leave for staff.
However, agency spokesperson Ryan Brown said “with vaccines widely available, those staff members who are not vaccinated may not be covered if they are a close contact of a confirmed positive case and then must quarantine since they have made the personal decision to not be vaccinated.”
Whether an unvaccinated staff members’ sick leave is covered with federal funding is up to the district.
It’s also up to them to decide whether a teacher can work from home while isolating. Brown said in those cases the teacher would not need to take leave.